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Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Ryan Geertsma.
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And I'm Robin Basselin. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
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K.G. Angeneyulu is a 55 year old man from India. He suffered from a common eye disease called cataracts. Over three years, these cataracts caused Angeneyulu to become blind. This process made Angeneyulu very sad. Angeneyulu told the Religion and Ethics news organization,
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"Before, I was a sports man. I used to swim. After the cataract, I could no longer move around. I had to stay home, and I started eating...I had problems being over weight, and I developed high blood pressure."
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Angeneyulu is not alone. The World Health Organization says that world wide, 45 million people are blind. And of these cases, 75 percent could be prevented or cured. One doctor, Dr. V., called this "needless" blindness. And he spent his life creating the Aravind eye care system - to end needless blindness.
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Aravind doctors helped Angeneyulu to see again. And he is one of millions of people that Aravind has served in this way. Today's Spotlight is on Doctor Govindappa Venkataswamy and the Aravind Eye Care System.
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Govindappa Venkataswamy or Dr. V., completed medical school in 1944. At this time, he wanted to be an obstetrician - a doctor that helps women give birth. However, after medical school, Dr. V. began suffering from a disease called Rheumatoid arthritis. This disease caused Dr. V. much pain. It also limited the movement of his fingers. Because of his disease, Dr. V. could no longer be an obstetrician.
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However, Dr. V. still wanted to be a doctor. So, he returned to school and completed another degree in Ophthalmology. He now specialized in eye care. Dr. V. still suffered from Rheumatoid arthritis. So he created special instruments that helped him perform eye operations. Dr. V served over 20 years in government hospitals. And he became one of the best eye doctors in India. He was well known for his research, his skill and his quickness. No one operated as fast as Dr. V.
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In 1976, Dr. V. turned 58 years old - the government retirement age in India. Dr. V. could no longer work as a doctor in government hospitals. However, he did not think his work was done. So, he opened a small eye hospital in the city of Madurai. This was the beginning of the Aravind Eye Care system. Aravind started small, but Dr. V.'s idea for the hospital was always big. His goal was to develop an eye care system that would end needless blindness. He would provide merciful and high quality care to all people.
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Dr. V. based his eye care system on an unusual model - the American fast food business, McDonalds. Like McDonalds, Dr. V. knew that if he served a large number of people, the cost of his services would decrease. And by decreasing the cost, he hoped to provide eye care for all people that needed it - rich or poor.
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Dr. V. told the magazine, Fast Company,
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"If McDonald's can sell over one thousand million burgers, why cannot Aravind sell millions of eye sight-repairing operations?"
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Dr. V. looked for every possible way to make his services better and faster. He trained other health workers to prepare patients for their eye operations. He also decided to prepare more than one patient at a time for simple eye operations. You see, the eye doctor's operating skills are only needed for ten to twenty minutes per patient. So, once the patients are prepared, the doctor can perform four or more operations in an hour. This rate is much higher than anywhere else in the world.
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Many people compare Dr. V.'s model to a factory line. Like a factory worker, doctors perform fast and high quality operation after operation.
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Some people worry that this model will lead to higher infection rates and lower quality operations. However, at Aravind, the rates of patient infection are very low. And doctors carefully consider the different situations of each patient. High and low risk patients are separated. Doctors leave extra time for high risk patients and prepare for possible complications. The quality of Aravind Eye Care services remains very high. And in 2007 alone, Aravind doctors performed more than 270,000 eye operations.
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Dr. V. also found other creative ways to decrease the cost of his operations. One major way Aravind saves money on cataract operations is by making their own intraocular lenses. These lenses are necessary for cataract surgery. Before Aravind started making their own, they had to pay 200 dollars for imported lenses. Today, at their Aurolab factory, they produce these lenses for only ten dollars. They sell extra lenses to pay for the services of those patients that cannot afford to pay.
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Aravind has worked hard to cure blindness by performing low-cost, high-quality operations. However, they have also worked hard to provide preventative eye care. By visiting doctors for eye tests, people can get help before they lose their ability to see. This care is very important to ending needless blindness. And no one provides more preventative eye care services than Aravind. In fact, in 2007, Aravind provided eye care for over two million out-patient visits. This makes Aravind the largest eye care provider in the world.
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Today, the Aravind Eye Care system has five hospitals and many more small, eye care centers. They even have mobile eye care centers that travel and provide care for people living in country areas.
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Aravind is able to serve so many people by carefully managing the eye care process. One way they do this is by using technology well. For example, some Aravind Eye Care centers do not have eye doctors. Instead, they have specialized eye care workers. These workers are trained only to prepare and test local patients. These healthcare workers DO work with doctors. They use the internet to send test results to doctors at larger Aravind centers. The doctors immediately examine the results and decide if the patient needs more care. Within minutes, the patients can meet and talk with the doctors using tele-conferencing technology. This technology makes it possible for one doctor to meet with many patients, in many different places, in a very short time.
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Aravind is an amazing model of better and faster eye care. It is also an example of merciful health care that provides services to everyone who needs them. Dr. V.'s eye care method has been recognized and praised by many national and international groups.
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After many years of devoted service, Dr. V. died in 2006. However, Aravind continues to work toward Dr. V.'s goal of ending needless blindness. Today, Aravind teaches its model to eye care workers all over the world. And it is clear that what makes the Aravind model special is not just its speed and quality - it is its spirit of service. And this spirit is found in the example of Dr. V., who once said,
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"Intelligence and skill are not enough. There must be the joy of doing something beautiful."
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